We all know how much everyone loves competitions - and how much everyone loves completely intangible prizes around here, so it seemed like high time to have another one.

TDA is in need of a new skin - well, need might be a strong word, but we're definitely in want of a new skin...but before you get despondent (because as anyone who has ever tried to do it can tell you, skinning for IBP is tedious, dull and unsatisfying or because you don't know HTML) read on...

Entries should be submitted as a flat jpg/png/gif of what your skin will look like. All you have to do is the photoshop work. If your design is chosen, I will do all of the coding - so that should open things up to a wider audience of participants.

SUBMISSION RULES:

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- you must be a tda member (duh)- your design must be submitted as a flat .jpg/.gif/.png- you must be able to provide a .psd/.pdf version of your design- your image must be submitted by April 21st. Round numbers. Also, I hate Tuesdays, so give me something to look forward to

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS:

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Size:- your skin must either scale (grow or shrink to fit the users screen resolution) or be no larger than 780x450 pixels

Content:- somewhere on it, your skin must say "the dark arts"- your skin must incorporate an area for rotators. (the dimensions of this area are not set - so they can be whatever size you like)- TDA doesn't often have a lot of main page content. we really prefer to keep things to the forum where possible, but we do reserve the right to occasionally say SOMETHING, so give us somewhere to do it.

Judging Criteria

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Admins reserve the right to ultimate and final say on a skin, with no explanation offered. BUT, of course we try not to be trolls, so here's some idea of what we're looking for.

First, of course we're looking for something that puts the site's best foot forward. Over time, TDA has grown to be more than just a place for HPFF banners - and that's a great thing - but it also means that slapping a picture of Harry on the main page isn't really the best plan for us, so try to avoid any obvious fandoms unless you're really knocking things out of the park. Also, rotators are very important to the TDA main page as they showcase our artists work. For that reason, making sure that your skin will be able to "work" with them is important.

Finally, the last thing you really need to consider is that I do have to code this, which means even if you make the best design ever, if it's too difficult to code or live within, we may choose something else. It's not personal, I promise

How To Submit:Images may be submitted by posting them in this thread anytime between now and the deadline date of April 21st.

I just want to get this cleared up--this is for the main TDA page, as in the black page we see with rotators as soon as we enter in the dark arts website link? I know this might be stupid, considering you mentioned rotators, but I just want it cleared.

I never thought I'd say this but NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I'm going away for most of this month (Driving to New York today) and the deadlines actually my B-day (I'll be in Denver without Connection or Program), can you please extend the deadline to the end of April or is it really needed like now for Summer? I really wanna participate!

- Had to edit because its now Today rather than tomorrow XD...I should sleep.

I'm just curious, since I know nothing about coding or anything like that, what makes a design easy or hard to code?

QUOTE (Colorkiller @ Apr 9 2009, 09:13 AM)

yay! *huggles kay*though i usually code while i design so i get an idea of how it looksand what would and wouldn't work or look right. either way, i'm happy! XD

It's hard to say what specifically will make a design hard or easy to code. I designed a super cute skin in flat once - really adorable - but it had a little window on the righthand side that was supposed to scroll images...yeah, somehow getting all of the tables to work like they should have WITH the scrolling images and the expansion? At some point my head tried to explode, so I had to modify it...that's the sort of stuff I mean. It's not anything specific, it's just that sometimes, you're going to run into something that is too hard to be worth it.

ok, so i know nothing of coding, but i tried to make this fairly simple-looking. (also, i got all the images from stock.xchng so they're royalty free) please let me know if there's anything i need to change, because i'm not completely sure whether i did this right or not.XD

Oh man, this was awesome! Okay, so I'm no coder and I wouldn't really know what's difficult or easy to code but I still tried my best. I dunno - are adjustments layers hard to code or is this a stupid question? 'Coz I kinda used colour balance and stuff to balance the colouring Also, fearing Kay, I didn't merge even the similar layers in my psd file.

I hope this is OK. I know a minimal amount about coding, so I tried to keep it simple without it seeming too empty. If any changes are needed just let me know! I'm using photoplus, so I don't have psd's I have spp's, so I'm not sure if you just want me to give you an empty base or if you can open my spp file? ^^png - psd.